Brick and Mortar . When Pop showed me how to reload we would buy supplies locally.

The little guy always had
IMR powder,
CCI primers,
Sierra and Speer bullets.

I can't remember the first time I saw Hodgdon powder and hornady bullets. Probably in Leslie Edelmans.

quote:

Brick and Mortar

Times have changed.

The olden days.

We don't even walk the aisles at the grocery store anymore.

Yes, the good old days.
I grew up in a brick and mortar GUN SHOP
Mom and Dad ran it from 1973 til 1994

When they closed it the were Service stations for 7 major Gun makers
They had 5 full time Gunsmiths, and were doing 3500 repairs a year
The retail side had 2 full time sales persons and selling over $ 500,000 a year

Those were the days.

J Wisner

Try finding a full service gas station where they pump the gas, change the oil, and fix flats. Because it was on a major highway, the small town of 1,000 where I grew up had 13 such "filling stations", all supporting a local family of four to ten people. Is it any wonder Rural America has all but vanished?

When I first started reloading, all I had was a local store. First primers I bought were 22.99 per 1000, pound of varget was $20. The good ole days of 2008......

EDELMANS! what a place! In Little Falls NJ, if you can believe it. They had everything in a 20 yard aisle, floor to 6 feet high both sides. Have never seen more reloading supplies in any store since 1987. In fact, i would bet that the majority of members here have more than any store in their reloading space.

We had Bill Tobias Gun Shop in Albemarle NC. I bought my first press...a Lyman C press for $12.

Herters catalogs... 20 ga Texas reloader.. bag of shot was $7... shot pellets all over my bedroom floor... insurance agent freaking out from seeing the "8 lb kegs" of Herco i had stashed in my bedroom closet,,, Learning that i could resize (eventually) 30-06 headstamped brass to .243 dimensions and amaze my non-reloading friends.. RCBS reloading package, (press, and dies) was $29... B&W sporting goods store clerks that took the time to deal with a 12 yr.old kid... George Curry's Custom gunshop.. it was in a basement in downtown San Angelo... Cabelas's was mail order only...

WOW!

When I first started reloading at 14 in 1958. Powder was 50 cents a pound, primers $2.50/1000. We could buy either and guns mail order, pistols too. Or maybe revolvers, I don't recall a pistol until an uncle brought a Luger home from Germany.

I dug '06 brass out of a drum at a scrap yard for a dime a pound, all I wanted.

Herter's C press was $25, still have it. Dies $5 a set, still have a few of those too.

I've wondered what these things cost when the OLD Guys started. It was several years before I met anyone else that reloaded. I learned by screwing up just about every way possible. Amazingly I never blew a gun up until about ten years ago by being real careful loading a tiny shell. (5.7 FNH necked to .17 cal) 10.0gr H110 did it.

Cheers Gents,

George

I didn't start reloading rifle until 1972. Powder was a $1 a pound.

I was lucky I grew up in the same town as Grafs and Sons. They started in an old service station. Had a skeet range out back.

It used to be Allied and Smith and Edwards in these parts. Started out as military surplus stores after WW2 and morphed into sporting goods stores. Allied went away years ago, some of the old stores are still around, but it sure aint like it used to be. Just yesterday I found an old box of 225 grain .338 Sierra bullets marked $9.00. No doubt I thought that was expensive at the time. I still try to buy from the locals, but these days a guy has got to do what he can to keep shooting.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
I didn't start reloading rifle until 1972. Powder was a $1 a pound.

I was lucky I grew up in the same town as Grafs and Sons. They started in an old service station. Had a skeet range out back.

Paul,

SOME powder was $1 per pound but the good stuff we sold in 1972 was more like $3. We all cried when primers went to $4.99/ carton (1000).

Sold guns and reloading stuff, taught reloading and hunter safety classes for part of that time until I got into management. I did that job for almost 2 decades and had more fun at that job that anything before or since!

How times have changed!!! Some better, most worse.

Zeke